'Shocking and unconscionable': Lawyers and accountants to pocket $1 BILLION in Madoff clean up fees

[arrestblankfein]

Lawyers and accountants dismantling the estate of crooked financier Bernard Madoff are set to earn $1billion in fees - all paid for by the taxpayer.

Attorneys have been charging up to $742 an hour to trace the money left behind when the fraudster's $65billion Ponzi scheme collapsed.

One law firm has already invoiced for $130million whilst others have put in colossal bills for straightforward consultancy work.

The bill is being met by a nonprofit group called the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, which is drafted in to recover the money when brokerage firms collapse.

It is supported by the government meaning that taxpayers are the ones having to meet the exorbitant bills.

Madoff victims have called the payments 'shocking and unconscionable'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1372410/Lawyers-accountants-pocket-1-BILLION-Madoff-clean-fees.html#ixzz1INeZglGh




This is two weeks old, but thought it worth a repost considering how much talk about the budget is going on, how they are cutting off homeless veterans, making poor people eat dirt etc.

[Donnachaidh]

1. 742 bucks per HOUR? For what?

I certainly hoped it required the use of knee pads and lots of chapstick. :grr:

[arrestblankfein]

5. and none of it goes to the victims!

It is just appalling.

[gratuitous]

2. The fee petition will be subject to court review

But yeah, hourly rates for attorneys in matters of high finance are some of the highest in the profession. Untangling a mare's nest of financial intertwinings is a specialized field where attorneys can command hourly rates in excess of four figures. A court will be asked to review the petition for attorney fees and costs, and if my experience in social security proceedings is any indication, they go over the petitions pretty carefully, as well as demand proof that the hourly rate asked is "reasonable."

Don't want to spend a billion dollars dismantling a crooked empire? Then equip the SEC and other government regulatory bodies with the rules, staffing, and mandate to regulate these markets. Because anytime there are huge piles of money moving around, it will invite or breed the dishonest and the scheming to skim some or a lot for themselves.

[Countdown_3_2_1]

3. This is why I don't like lawyers running the govt. nt

[arrestblankfein]

4. kick

:kick: